Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)
LADISLAV BARES: Shabtis from the Late Period tombs at Abusir (Preliminary remarks)
skeletal remains of a man. On the eastern end of the coffin belonging to lady Imakh-kher-(t)-Resent and in sand around it, 405 crudely worked faience shabtis were found. 17 The shabtis are glazed in varying shades of light blue-green; the quality of the glaze is usually very low with big portions of some statuettes completely free of it. The dimensions of the statuettes show a considerable variety as well, their length fluctuating between 4.7 and 7.2 cm (around 6 cm in most cases), their width between 1.5 and 2.3 cm (around 1.8 cm in most cases). Of the whole number, only four pieces were inscribed on the crudely worked rear side, under the glaze. In two cases, the text can be read as: jt ntr, Nfâw with a possible addition -wi M in one of the two: „God's father Neko(wer). " On the remaining two inscribed pieces, the signs are merely scratched and hardly to read. Judging from the name, at least the two inscribed shabtis did not belong to the lady upon whose coffin they had been found. Most probably, therefore, they might be connected with the other burial in this corridor, that of an elderly man. 19 In the tomb of Padihor, fragments of several faience shabtis were found in the limestone burial chamber, in the sand filling the main shaft and around its mouth. Only four pieces could have been put together in an almost complete way. 20 In addition to that, feet ends of seven other statuettes were found. Thus, eleven shabtis at least were situated in this tomb. 21 They all belong to the type commonly found at Abusir, 22 with glaze coloured in various shades of light blue-green. 23 All pieces were inscribed with a shortened version of the usual shabti spell 24 written on the rear side: Jrjp.tw Wsjr Pi-dj-hr rjr k^w{t) nb{t) m hrt-ntr, mk wj, ky.k 25 ,Jf one counts off the Osiris Padihor to do every work in the god's land (i.e. the cemetery), here I am, you shall say." In most cases, the text starts on the wig and its words are more or less corrupted. 17 Wig 35a, hands 14, implements resemble a simplified form of the type 8 according to Schneider, op. cit (note 8), vol. Ill, figs. 11-14. The rear side is flat, showing sometimes traces of fingerprints. " The reading of this sign, resembling its hieratic form, has been suggested by P. Vleková. " According to the preliminary anthropological examination, done by E. Strouhal, the man was about 60 years old and certainly belonged to the family of Iufaa. 211 The work has been done by M. Dvorak, restorer of the Czech archaeological mission at Abusir 21 Their number might have been much bigger, of course, but the tomb has been robbed in antiquity or mediaeval times. 22 Wig 34, hands 5. implements 8, bags 26a according to Schneider, op. cit (note 8), vol. Ill, figs. 11-14. 21 In one case, the statuette consists of fragments considerably different in their colour. As the fragments were found in the burial chamber and on the surface near to the mouth of the main shaft respectively, the changes in colour of the faience glaze without any doubt resulted from different conditions in which they were preserved. 24 See, e.g., Schneider, op. cit (note 8), vol. I, pp. 78-158. 25 For parallels see, e.g., Schneider, op. cit (note 8), Vol. Ill, fig. 5, Version VIIA.
